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Android 4.0 Upgrade For Sony Xperia Smartphones Opens a Pandora Box
First time accepted submitter ctrl-alt-canc writes "The udpdate to Android ICS offered for free by Sony to the Xperia smarphone users has caused plenty of troubles. Not only the decision by Sony of not updating Xperia Play phones to ICS caused rage among customers, but those who were lucky to get an upgrade for their smartphones discovered that WiFi connection did not work anymore. Up to now, the only suggestion proposed by Sony to fix the problem is to turn off the encryption, and reboot the smartphone and the access point."
If it opened a pandoras box, then all hell on earth would break out.. all manner of terrible things would be unleashed upon the world.
Having a few problems with your phone is not a pandoras box.. at best, you could say it opened a can of worms.
If you need web hosting, you could do worse than here
LT18 WiFi works on LT15
I have an Xperia Arc (LT15) but have flashed on the Xperia Arc S (LT18) without any issues to WiFi.
Has Sony ever been anything but miserable at software?
Didn't we learn our lesson from the last N rounds of user-hostile actions taken by Sony?
Who in their right mind buys Sony gear any more, after them suing their customers, removing advertised features from products after you bought them, root-kitting people's PCs, leaking your private data to the whole world, etc etc?
Seriously? People are STILL buying from Sony? Why on earth would anyone want to encourage their behaviour?
Because android is open.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
Sony sucks at proper software upgrades.
The real problem is that Sony totally blew at testing the WPA stack before release. This isn't altogether hard to fix, but it's time that could be taken away from their next great phone they want you to buy. Android vendors are hit and miss on this upgrade thing. Some vendors are really amazing at providing updates and some just blow. Being able to root one's phone is the only real salvation. So I don't think this deserves the hype to author is putting into this, Sony sucks, is there anyone of us surprised by this? Will they fix it? Who knows, maybe, however this is yet another reminder that this mobile stuff is still pretty new shit. Tread with caution.
Android 4.0 Upgrade For Sony Xperia Smarphones Opens a Pandora Box
It's a smartphone, ffs, and the box is Pandora's.
I'm beyond even thinking about asking Slashdot to edit; I know that's too much to ask for. Could you at least run a fucking spell check?
When geeks, gamers, and other people who are interested in technology buy from Sony, it's like when a wealthy, 80-year-old Jewish businessman goes to a high-priced dominatrix who will dress up in an SS uniform, shove a ball gag in his mouth, and...
Anyone else got any ideas as to why people keep giving their money to these jackasses?
"We just did it to make you open your wi-fi to the world, so everyone can have access using your internet connection! :P
That way people can pirate our movie and music works on your opwn Wi-Fi. Then we'll send threatening letters to you about this infringement. You'll settle the case without going to court, and we'll profit!"
Sadly, despite them kicking us in the junk all the time, they do make a lot of superior products.
My most recent purchase was a PS3, not for the games, for the bluray player. The first one I bought was complete garbage. And was pleasantly surprised to find I could stream movies from my extensive video library on my computer too.
But that's probably why they're abusive and still around, there are enough people that tolerate the abuse because they otherwise have the best product.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
Android is open source. All you have to do is build your own rom
With iOS 4 and some wifi access points. At work I could never get my 3GS to work with ios 3 or 4
a baggie of thunder-monkeys
rewriting history since 2109
Aren't updates from Sony almost always related to shutting off features or disabling jailbreaks or crippling functionality that they perceive as a threat? Has Sony ever released an update (and left it in place) that opened up their products or added some great free feature that was met with applause by customers? What was it?
Opening a can of worms would mean that there is an open can containing worms. I don't believe that is the situation.
Meanwhile my WP7 phone (like all phones running Windows Phone) is up-to-date running silky smooth.
And yet slashdot continues to make posts about how terrible WP is and how great Android is.
Only one guy has managed to get his Xperia connected to the 'Net so far.
Have gnu, will travel.
Well, you can count on a company's track record, to some extend. Apple will often update old iPhones (sans most new features), most others will only update flagship devices once (though the Nexus line is sort of a LTS release and such devices receive more updates), Sony will mess it up and/or remove old features you had, while suing you, your family, your dog and leaving a bag of shit on your doorstep.
Maybe I'm just spoiled by Linux, but it really irritated me that Telus (in Canada) (aka one-third of the oligopoly that controls all cel phones in the country) took months to upgrade my Google branded Nexus S to ICS. Short of rooting the damned thing there wasn't a thing I could do about it.
We've reached a point where phones are becoming computing appliances, and end users shouldn't be held hostage by this sort of nonsense. If a major upgrade is available, I should have the option of installing it now, not when some bean-counter in Toronto decides it can no longer be avoided.
Three Squirrels
This _is_ Sony, right?... Let's see... rootkits, Playstation network security problems... Nope, not surprised.
Its not Sony's fault. (Well, its no ONLY Sony's fault).
This is a long standing problem with Android and certain wifi chip sets and ICS. It first reared its head in the Nook first edition
a long time ago, then it disappeared for quite a while only to come back with a vengeance with ICS.
Simply google the words: connecting authenticating obtaining ip loop
and you will see this is common to a LOT of Android handsets and tablets.
Google search click here.
The entire flagship HTC One line has similar problems. Samsung has the same problem, as does ZTE, Achros, Huawei and several others.
Some of these vendors (HTC) have promised fixes (and all have failed to deliver as best as I can tell).
If you fiddle with it long enough it will connect, eventually. Often rebooting your router will work, but you can't always do that.
Often connecting to your neighbor's "guest" network will work, and then subsequently reconnecting to your own network will also work fine.
(especially if said guest account is an open network with no encryption).
Its never a problem of a bad password. Its not something you can fix with a static IP.
The problem is in the actual authentication layer of the wifi connection, before it even gets around to asking for an IP Address.
Seems to affect 802.11G routers more than others. Its not specific to certain router brands.
I've alogcated my self into a stupor and dug thru some of the opensource code.
The only thing I can see is that it appears some token is supposed to be incremented by the handset with each authentication attempt, and it is not
being incremented, so the router disconnects the client. But so much of wpa_suplicant is running in binary blobs that the end user is at a
serious disadvantage trying to dig through this stuff.
I can induce this error at will on my HTC One X, and I can recover from it by simply connecting to an unprotected wifi "guest" account
near by, then wait 30 seconds, and re-connect to my wpa2 secured router. I also solved it by running a spare router with no security
and leaving the router unconnected to anything. I use this for connection, wait 30 seconds, then reconnect to my home router.
Its a major pain. But its not SONY's fault, I suspect its Google's fault or the wifi chipset manufacturer's fault.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Oh, the token I mentioned was the EAPOL replay counter. (What ever the hell that is).
See this thread http://forums.fedoraforum.org/showthread.php?t=177798 where the resolution (near the bottom) was as I mentioned, connecting to any unsecured router than connecting back again.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
For a company that geeks already hate pissing off the customers of your flagship phone and then having that fact announced in the media across the world kind of does fit the definition of all manner of terrible things being unlashed upon their world, the Sony world.
Also this has been common and accepted use of the phrase in the media for a long time now.
Sony should've tested the upgrade a bit more before releasing it.
That said, I imagine users with rooted phones probably have many alternatives to get Wi-Fi working.
Wi-Fi problems are possibly the most common issue in Android (possibily Linux as well, possibly in every OS).
While I imagine it's a pretty big issue for those people who upgraded, I wouldn't be surprised if the fix is pretty straightforward.
Overall, I wouldn't describe it as a "Pandora's Box."
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools The way to dusty death. --Will
Android is winning.
Yes, it is.
http://www.engadget.com/2012/03/29/nielsen-smartphones-account-for-nearly-50-percent-of-us-mobile/
According to its latest report on Smartphone OS shares, of those smartphone purchases, 48 percent of buyers went with Android, 43 percent landed iOS a close second
I compared Sony to a beautiful but abusive ex a few years ago. You swear you'll never talk to her again but a year goes by and you run into her at the mall and she's looking hot. Dinner seems safe enough. Public place and all. One thing leads to another...
Someone pointed out that /.ers don't know what it's like to have a hot ex and I should stick to car analogies.
I've sworn off Sony a couple of times but then they put out a product with the perfect mix of features and price so I make an exception "just this one time".
hasbeen
No other major manufacturer has committed to delivering ICS to their last range of phones like Sony has. I recently purchased an Xperia mini pro from which I'm typing this post and that was on the basis that it was both cheap and would have ICS support. This came in the form of the upgrade being presented to me the second it synced up with Sonys software.
They support the community as much as they can, releasing beta ROMS for feedback, feedback that lead to the decision to not release ICS for the Play. While it sucks for many Play users, ultimately the decision was made because it would impact the gaming performance too much.
As stated elsewhere this bug occurs on a lot of Android phones, so while ive never been a big fan of Sony corporate I think you could safely call this piece a bit of a beat up.
This is very good information, but... isn't it Sony's responsibility to test their products before they ship?
Reminds me of all those 1st-gen SSDs powered by JMicron controllers. They studdered and froze the machine constantly while trying to flush the buffer, rendering the whole PC virtually unusable. When I bought an OCZ Apex and had nothing but problems with it, several people yelled at me and told me that I should expect to have problems with such an early, immature product. For long-term reliability, sure, but for extremely obvious problems at launch? Fuck that. I sold that OCZ drive to a Linux junkie who was willing to tweak it until it worked, and got myself a Corsair P128, which is still working flawlessly.
I didn't blame JMicron. Supplier issues are not my problem. I squarely blamed OCZ for not testing their product properly and deciding to ship such a buggy piece of junk.
Strange how smart phones and tablets are far more closed and proprietary than PCs, and manufacturers are still having the same interoperability issues. No, wait... it isn't.
Sounds like the problem my wife's HTC Desire was having with a particular hotel's WiFi network when we were traveling in Europe. Of course, it probably wasn't reasonable for me to ask the hotel manager to reboot their router... could I have? :)
Most people on Slashdot are fucking idiots.
My most recent purchase was a PS3, not for the games, for the bluray player.
Which has a nasty habit of ramping up its power supply fan to take-off speeds about 30 minutes into a movie and staying that way until powered off, sounding much like a vacuum cleaner with a wad a paper stuck in the nozzle. I don't know about you, but that's a killer flaw from where I sit.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
Absolutely the manufacturer's fault.
Considering that every ICS handset manufacturer seems to see this problem, why is anyone releasing any ICS build without testing for this specific issue? Are they so internally focused that they are unaware that this is going on in the market as a whole?
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
At some point we just have to say anyone who is still buying any Sony products deserves everything they get.
It wasn't like they weren't warned.
You are welcome on my lawn.
>Why on earth would anyone want to encourage their behaviour
Sony is now effectively a financial services (insurance) company, so it doesn't matter what happens with hardware. It's kind of a loss leader for them, like the Macintosh hardware at Apple.
The entire flagship HTC One line has similar problems.
I bought one of the very first HTC One V's in our market three months back - in fact my first Android phone/ smart phone as I was waiting for the technology to become a bit mature and the software / hardware to be polished.
I have ABSOLUTELY NO problems with WiFi. There is a "death grip" issue for HTC One X, but that is not a "chip set" or software / hardware / device driver issue.
And I have been following xda forums and HTC One forums and I cannot find any serious issue with WiFi being discussed. So you are seriously misinformed - at least about HTC One Series.
HTC One V is also a very good phone.
Tat Tvam Asi
I've been running ICS on my Galaxy Nexus since 9:10AM 12/15/11 ... NEVER have I had an issue with Wifi.
This is absolutely Sony's fault. The hardware THEY choose to use has drivers and should have been tested. It was not. I know quit a few folks who have ICS on various models and it works fine.
Sony chose the chipset maker. Sony put together the ROM. Sony sold the phone. It's Sony's problem. Maybe if Sony .. like many others would take the resources they put toward their UI overlays and ACTUALLY put them towards make a decent, supportable product then things would be fine. I mean seriously .. AOSP GAVE them the tools and the OS .. the rest is up to them. It is neither Google nor Android's fault that the cobbler (Sony) fucked up the product.
This is not Googles fault nor Android's fault but Sony's fault. PERIOD. End of story .. that's all she wrote.
Tell me what you believe...I'll tell you what you should see.
As I stated, this happens on a wide variety of handset from multiple makers. Are those all Sony's fault too?
Just because your device hasn't exhibited this does not mean that all those others posting about it are lying.
Climb down off your pedestal hot shot.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Of course it's Sony's fault. Nobody forced Sony to use this specific WiFi chipset, nor did anyone force Sony to use or update to Android 4. Not to mention that Sony can be expected to have the engineering capabilities to fix some WiFi drivers. Finally, if this is such a well-known issue, Sony should have warned it's users before upgrading.
Thanks for the background information, which is useful, but it in no way excuses so for crippling people's devices.
Sony had that chipset in use prior to the update, and likely, it worked fine, so it's hardly Sony's fault that the chipset they used wasn't future proofed from a bug that, at that time, was nonexistent. Sony probably shouldn't have upgraded to ICS, but had they not, customers would have been frustrated and Sony would have gotten a black eye for not offering ICS. Customer satisfaction demanded that Sony give ICS. Is there no way for customers to revert back?
He writes like a 'tard.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
And totally inefficient if you dare to use your own access point yourself even once. Great.
I still buy Sony stuff if it doesn't have any software in it. Otherwise, no fucking way.
What do you think they make that has no software on it?
Personally, it's a decision that I still regret.
I bought an Xperia X10 Mini Pro because it was the only Android device I could find with a slide-out keyboard. The actual Android portion of it has been as fine as you'd expect, but from the Sony side:
1) They've refused to release an official update beyond 2.1. Among other things, this means that it doesn't have the feature of saving apps to memory card- a colossal draw back. There's no technical reason for this, they just don't want to support their old phones.
2) Hardware build quality is poor. The slide-out keyboard sticks and warps the case when you try to slide it.
3) Wifi keeps freezing, and needs to be constantly reset. I've downloaded a 3rd party app which resets the Wifi every time it freezes, but it's not good.
I wouldn't buy a Sony again. Not when what they're basically peddling (Android smartphones) are available from plenty of better companies than them.
How many phones effected? Was it quickly fixed? I updated my Sony Live Wt9i (based on Xperia) and still accessed wifi without problems
Headphones?
Sony are unlikely to use the other stock answer of "your phone sucks get a Nexus", at least...
For the two people who haven't figured it out, MAC address spoofing is trivial, and finding a valid MAC address is as easy as listening in on ONE packet from a connected device.
It may keep the average user out, but it'll barely slow down even the lamest of script kiddies.
My sig can beat up your sig.
Really? And you have reading comprehension issues. I said faux-open ->project model<-
FTFY. Might want to proofread before you start bitching about literacy problems, next time.
My sig can beat up your sig.
No, but it's a decent indicator that the fault doesn't lie in the OS's network stack (and thus not Google's doing), but rather in the specific hardware (including drivers).
That being said, Google isn't the ones who've pushed out a defective OS image to devices in the field. As far as Xperia phones go, this is ENTIRELY Sony's fault for skipping on proper QA. Proper testing would've discovered this problem before it hit end users, ESPECIALLY if they are smart enough to look at known issues for OTHER ICS devices as part of their QA process.
My sig can beat up your sig.
If it worked before, and the only thing that changed was software, then it can fixed in software. It IS Sony's fault they didn't perform a proper QA job, and didn't fix the problem in the software before releasing the update.
If they were aware of the issue, and really DID feel pressured to release the update, they could have just come clean on why the update was being held up, and release the update as an unsupported beta version for power users to try out. It shows the community that they really ARE working on it, and confirms that there IS a problem that's holding it up.
My sig can beat up your sig.
Shit hits the fan after Android 4.0 upgrade on Sony Ericsson Xperia smart phones
Nobody has the advantage.
Yeah, our product is defective, but so is everyone else's, so you might as well buy ours.
Computer marketing in a nutshell. These same people sit around wondering how Apple makes so much money.
If it opened a pandoras box, then all hell on earth would break out.. all manner of terrible things would be unleashed upon the world.
Having a few problems with your phone is not a pandoras box.. at best, you could say it opened a can of worms.
Actually, Pandora's box, when used as a figure of speech, refers to something holding secrets one doesn't wish to reveal to the world at large, ie. this obviously has nothing to do with Pandora's box at all; there are no secrets being revealed here. It's not even a can of worms as that, too, refers to more-or-less the same thing. This is just sloppy work by Sony and there's plenty of other expressions to use for that.
As an aside it is quite astounding that Slashdot editors don't even know how to use popular figures of speech like this properly. Heck, my native language isn't English and yet even I know full-well how to use the expression "opening the Pandora's box."
I have a high quality very solid entertainment center with reinforced glass doors, no sound escapes it. Though I did notice the fan on the PS3 can get loud when the door is open.
I work for the Department of Redundancy Department.
I can't speak about it myself since I got the Xperia Play but my father didn't have any issues with his ICS Xperia Arc S. I'm sure if WiFi didn't work he would already have come to me and demanded free tech support.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
The analogy only works before you start eating them.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
People do care that when you buy Sony, you're almost guaranteed to get the kind of stuff that in some unique Sony way doesn't work with your other stuff.
Help stamp out iliturcy.
And people still buy Sony products... poor fools. When will they learn?
Free Martian Whores!
If English isn't your native language, it suggests that unlike much of the English speaking populace, you may have actually studied it at some point.
There are two types of people in the world; those who believe there are two types of people, and those who don't.
The Macintosh is so not a loss leader!
The Sony build of ICS isn't really an upgrade over Gingerbread. Some bits run better, others worse and on low end (512Mb) devices it really struggles with RAM. It is worth trying 3rd party builds, without so much Sony crapware ICS feels noticeably faster and smoother.
If you play games, don't do it. ICS broke a significant number of games and we're still waiting for updates. Gameloft and EA seem worst.
Different problem.
But if it were specific to a type of AP, people would soon figure this out. People on various message boards and forums are comparing router models, encryption settings, etc.
You glossed over the point about it working fine, then you walk out of range, and later walk back into range and the handset can't connect. Change nothing in your settings, connect to an un-encryption AP, then you can again connect to your encrypted AP. It has nothing to do with permanently recalcitrant routers. Those find their way to the scrap heap in no time.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
And people still buy Sony products... poor fools. When will they learn?
Well, my Motorola phone has no ICS update yet. I'd rather have ICS and open wifi than an older version of android.
I would say the people still buying Sony have an Idée fixe about them.
Like religious nutjobs, fanbois, conspiracy theorists, stalkers, etc
"An idée fixe is a preoccupation of mind held so firmly as to resist any attempt to modify it, a fixation. "
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Id%C3%A9e_fixe_(psychology)
It's not an official term in case someone has an idée fixe that terms describing psychological conditions Must Be Official.
I'd go on a Vegan diet but the delivery time from Vega is too long. --brownkitty
My Xperia Ray (which I love - try finding a small Android phone with decent camera otherwise) updated to ICS with no problems. But ICS broke the screenshot capability on the long power button press. Now it's nearly impossible to take a screenshot with the case on - you have to press 2 buttons simultaneously. This irritates me on a weekly basis.
You got them there. QA is one thing Sony could control and ought to have.
I have a high quality very solid entertainment center with reinforced glass doors, no sound escapes it.
Impossible. If heat can escape then sound can escape, unless you have a far more sophisticated setup than I think you have. I believe that our definitions of "no sound" differ. I can practically guarantee that my ears will detect the fan of your PS3 and be annoyed by it whenever the sound track becomes quiet.
A better solution for the videophile is to not use the PS3 as a crappy Blu-ray player, where "crappy" is the only technical term that accurately describes its performance in that regard.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
They could have pushed the manufacturer for open source drivers. They are a major customer after all.
You're very naive. Yes, it's fair to believe it's the manufacturers responsibility to test this, but in reality they either just don't care or lack the resources to properly test such a complicated device across all hardware/software-configurations possible - or any combination of the above reasons or other reasons I haven't mentioned.
The sad reality is that Joe Average demands the latest shiny crap, and he demands it immediately. Companies making technology today need to push out the latest and greatest with only minimal testing, or they will have their lunch eaten by the competitor who launched a similar product earlier but with even less testing and product development.
I assure you, the days when companies actually cared about their product beyond launch or enough to avoid a class-action lawsuit because of a crappy product are long gone, my friend.
I enjoy large posteriors and I cannot prevaricate.
I purchased it with the stated promise of the company that it would be upgraded. I actually looked for that official statement before making the decision to buy.
I guess the hope part is hoping that a company would keep its word. But given that its word got me to buy their product, and they broke their word, isn't that fraud?
This could be fun. Small claims court, here I come!
I got burned by HTC. The phone I bought was always way behind on Android versions, and never even got an official upgrade to Froyo, although the guys on Cyanogen had Froyo running on it with no problems.
Across the board, Android phone makers have a horrible history of supporting their phones with the latest OS. Apple looks positively angelic in this respect.
Really? And you have reading comprehension issues. I said faux-open ->project model<-
And I see that not all Googlers possess sufficient moral spine to refrain from spinmodding on Slashdot. But of course I already knew that. Sadly, the don't be evil has left the building.
When all you have is a hammer, every problem starts to look like a thumb.
I didn't know about the HMZT1 until yesterday. [sigh]